Not everything old is historic in Austin
A West Austin homeowner will be allowed to tear down her 1960s-era house, despite attempts by the city of Austin to designate it a historic landmark.
Read all about it in the Austin American-Statesman.
–rm
National Climate Assessment Draft: Findings for Great Plains
This press release just in:
A special panel of scientists convened by the U.S. government issued a draft report stating that global warming is already changing America and how Americans live. The 1,146-page draft report details dozens of ways that climate change is already disrupting the health, homes and many aspects of daily life in the United States. The authors write that “climate change, once considered an issue for a distance future, has moved firmly into the present.”
For the Great Plains, key takeways from the draft include:
- Rising temperatures are leading to increased demand for water and energy. In parts of the region, this will constrain development, stress natural resources, and increase competition for water among communities, agriculture, energy production, and ecological needs.
- Changes to crop growth cycles due to warming winters and alterations in the timing and magnitude of rainfall events are already observed; as these trends continue, they will require new agriculture and livestock management practices.
- Landscape fragmentation is increasing, for example, in the context of energy development activities in the northern Great Plains. A highly fragmented landscape will hinder adaptation of species when climate change alters habitat composition and timing of plant development cycles.
- Communities that are already the most vulnerable to weather and climate extremes will be stressed even further by more frequent extreme events occurring within an already highly variable climate system.
- The magnitude of expected changes will exceed those experienced in the last century. Existing adaptation and planning efforts are inadequate to respond to these projected impacts.
Nationally, the report observed hotter weather, rising-seas, heavy downpours, melting glaciers and permafrost, and worsening storms due to climatic changes that have already occurred. These impacts will only continue as temperatures continue to rise.
The report emphasizes that global warming is threat to homes, agriculture and vital infrastructure, including roads, airports, train and subway systems, power plants and water and sewage systems.
Key findings from the draft’s executive summary:
- Global climate is changing, and this is apparent across the US in a wide range of observations. The climate change of the past 50 years is due primarily to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels.
- Some extreme weather and climate events have increased in recent decades, and there is new and stronger evidence that many of these increases are related to human activities.
- Human-induced climate change is projected to continue and accelerate significantly if emissions of heat-trapping pollution continues to increase.
- Impacts related to climate change are already evident in many sectors and are expected to become increasingly challenging across the nation throughout this century and beyond.
- Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including impacts from increased extreme weather events, wildfire, decreased air quality, diseases transmitted by insects food and water and threats to mental health.
- Infrastructure across the U.S. is being adversely affected by phenomena associated with climate change, including sea level rise, storm surge, heavy downpours, and extreme heat.
- Reliability of water supplies is being reduced by climate change in a variety of ways that affect ecosystems and livelihoods in many regions, particularly the Southwest, the Great Plains, the Southeast, and the islands of the Caribbean and the Pacific, including the state of Hawai’i.
- Adverse impacts to crops and livestock over the next 100 years are expected. Over the next 25 years or so, the agriculture sector is projected to be relatively resilient, even though there will be increasing disruptions from extreme heat, drought, and heavy downpours. U.S. food security and farm incomes will also depend on how agricultural systems adapt to climate changes in other regions of the world.
- Natural ecosystems are being directly affected by climate change, including changes in biodiversity and location of species. As a result, the capacity of ecosystems to moderate the consequences of disturbances such as droughts, floods, and severe storms is being diminished.
- Life in the oceans is changing as ocean waters become warmer and more acidic.
- Planning for adaptation (to address and prepare for impacts) and mitigation (to reduce emissions) is increasing, but progress with implementation is limited.
The draft report was written by team of 240 scientists and overseen by the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee (NCADAC), a 60-person Federal Advisory Committee.
–rm
Not even belly dancers could save the place?
A moment of silence, please, for Sinbad Mediterranean Cuisine, 5801 Northwest Expressway. Louis Dakil is auctioning it all off — “from wall to wall and floor to ceiling” — at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 17. Equipment and furnishing, not the real estate Inspection starts at 9 a.m. Details and photos here.
Sigh. It was a favorite of mine — a great place for my refined redneck palate:
Meat? Good! Taters? Good! Chicken-fried spinach (tempura battered)? Good! Spicy? Good, good, good! Buffet? Better!
They had belly dancers some evenings, but I never saw them, being a weekday lunch buffet customer. They had a “Shookah Lounge” — for “sharing a hookah,” I guess — but I never tried that either, for the same reason.
The food was good enough.
Alas, another good eatin’ joint bites the dust — probably (I’m just guessing) for the same reason most do: Lack of advertising. I never saw any ads for the place, anyway. It’s a shame.
–rm
Beware ZOMBIE FORECLOSURES (no joke)
“With impunity, banks have been walking away from foreclosures much the way some homeowners walked away from their mortgages when the housing market first crashed.”
It’s leaving people owing house payments, taxes and other debts they didn’t know they owed, years after they thought the worst was behind them.
Banks! How long, O LORD, how long?
Read all about it from Reuters, via The Christian Science Monitor.
And if you know of anyone in Oklahoma who is being stalked by a zombie foreclosure, let me know for possible reporting in The Oklahoman.
–rm
It’s about time we got a break: Natural hazard summary barely mentions Oklahoma
Oklahoma has landed on more national lists of recognition the past five years than ever, it seems like. Here’s a list that, historically, should place the state highly — but in 2012 we barely rated even a mention.
Woo hoo!
It’s CoreLogic’s Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis.
Hurricane Sandy, sadly for the millions affected, stole the show last year. Read a summary of the summary here.
Oklahoma’s single mention in the summary? In a table showing states with 30 or more tornadoes in 2012. We had 41 all year, a drop in the bucket. By way of comparison, on May 3, 1999, SIXTY-SIX tornadoes dropped in Oklahoma and Kansas. In one day: 66.
What gives? Why the tornado drought? Well, CoreLogic points to the drought-drought:
“It has been suggested that the drought conditions that dominated the midsummer months served to minimize the opportunity for the formation of tornadoes, which could explain the dramatic drop in tornado incidents in the later months of 2012 following a highly active start from January through May. Given the continuing drought conditions throughout much of the central U.S. in the latter months of 2012, it is reasonable to expect that tornado activity will remain at a lower level through 2013 if these conditions persist.”
I can live with that. I mean, if we’re stuck in a drought, I’ll take fewer tornadoes as a consolation.
Read CoreLogic’s Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis here.
–rm
Paul Iser: $18.5M buyer of Spring Creek Shopping Center in Edmond, OK
I reported the purchase of the popular center in Edmond on Dec. 29. The buyer did not want to be identified, for some reason. I heard that it was Paul Iser, but could not then confirm it.
Today, the deeds crossed my desk, showing that the buyer was FAE HOLDINGS 414356R LLC.
The Oklahoma County Assessor’s Office shows a new return address for the shopping center — which sold to FAE HOLDINGS 414356R LLC in several parcels — as 400 S Coltrane Road, in Edmond.
At 400 S Coltrane Road is Prime Development Corp. and other concerns.
And Paul Iser is president of Prime Development Corp.
Confirmed.
–rm
Welcoming windmills in want of work in Piedmont, OK
1430 Piedmont Road North, Piedmont, OK
Dear Piedmont,
The windmills set up along State Highway 4 to welcome folks into town from Northwest Highway (State Highway 3) were a great idea. That was 10 years ago. They need some repair, and the “Winds of Progress” sign could use a touch-up. Just sayin’.
On the plus side, this catfish joint, new to me, will get me to come back again — the back way from Edmond. It’s an easy drive — easier than coming from OKC, I think: From Santa Fe Avenue and Edmond Road, go 17 miles east and hang a left to get to Catfish Cove. And Whiskey Business Pub across the way in the same business center? Noted!
–rm
